World Cup roadshow on course

New Zealand will step up its bid to host the 2011 World Cup next month when leading executives lobby the major national unions to win their vote.

New Zealand Rugby Union [NZRU] chief executive Chris Moller and chairman Jock Hobbs will meet all the major unions to sell them their vision for the 2011 World Cup.

Moller and Hobbs will try and convince rugby aficionados from Europe and Australia that New Zealand is the spiritual home of the game and the country every professional dreams of playing in.

They will hold up the recent Lions tour as evidence of New Zealand's operational and commercial ability and suggest the global game would benefit from the tournament being played on these shores.

Moller said: "We are currently making arrangements to visit most of the major national unions during the course of October. You go and make your case to them. We need to get a majority of votes to be successful. Part of the process is to go and present your best possible credentials to those who will put their hands up in November one way or another.

"Some people might call it lobbying. I think that is a fairly negative word. The reality is when you are selling yourselves you put your best foot forward.

"We want the job of running the 2011 World Cup bid. We will be going on a worldwide roadshow to see as many national unions and voters as we can. It's as simple as this - we don't want to leave any stone unturned. We want to give it our best shot and don't want to die wondering whether if we had another meeting we might have achieved it.

"Holding a World Cup in New Zealand will ensure rugby remains very strong. And I don't just mean the All Black team. There is no other nation that actually exports more of its talent.

"If New Zealand talent is strong because of holding a World Cup then I think world rugby will benefit significantly. Look at the number of Kiwis who are helping grow the game in other countries."

The final vote on the hosting rights is likely to take place in mid November when the IRB has its full council meeting in Dublin. Moller sees the face-to-face meetings with the voting nations as the perfect chance to dispel some myths that have dogged the New Zealand bid.

"People have said many times that New Zealand doesn't have the cash box to do this," said Moller. "But we have guaranteed the tournament fee and that has equalised the playing field commercially.

"The stadia people have pointed to as an issue but that has been dealt with by the tournament fee. The only people who are disadvantaged by smaller stadia are the NZRU and Government.

"Another issue is the perception of our infrastructure not being able to handle it. I think we demonstrated clearly during the Lions tour that we have the infrastructure.

"Tourism is now our biggest industry, topping the dairy industry in terms of offshore currency earnings. The numbers are growing at seven per cent per annum. There are very significant plans for new hotels and other infrastructure has gone in place in the past two years. There are things people think are negative but at worst they are manageable and there are some pretty good opportunities."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY